@epaulnetPaul Erickson
The world of dictatorships is weird. Dictators across the world have a desire to become intellectuals and to go down in history as great leaders. They all suffer from an inferiority complex that conditions their attitudes. This complex makes them feel that they are a gift from God that empowers them to cancel the other. Qaddafi and his Green Book— which includes the third universal theory — were the epitome of such phenomenon.
Another dictator made his statements a constitution. His theories became a topic to be studied in universities. To paint his invincible image, he relied on recruited media to explain his theories in politics and economics. Furthermore, media became a means of propaganda and misleading. Parliaments in such states have become a rubber stamp with one task — to mock neighboring states and — under certain conditions — to change the constitution to fit the president.
Dictatorships neither believe in change nor in peaceful initiatives. Driven by their inferiority complex, these regimes tend to see any attempt to affect reform as a conspiracy. President Bashar Assad of Syria sees himself as the leader of a legitimate sectarian and national resistance in the region. In his opinion, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas stand firmly against American imperial project in the region. It is Syria that provides a safe haven for resistance.
For this reason, how dare Syrian citizens ask for their rights at a time when they have a president who resist the United States and its Greater Middle Eastern Project? Seen in this way, the regime considers call for the president to step down as nothing but blasphemy. To this regime, freedom of the people should be subordinated to the imperatives of confrontation and steadfastness. It is this mindset that does not have a guilty feeling over killing thousands of the people who are seen as playing into the hands of the enemy.
It seems that Assad's ideas fell on deaf ears. Average Syrian wonders what kind of resistance the president refers to when the Golan front has been quite since 1974. Assad's pretension does not resonate well with the people, especially after James Baker, who was President George Bush’s secretary of state, revealed that Assad the father and the Israelis had accomplished some 98 percent of a peace treaty. Then some question the authenticity of resistance (that divided Lebanon into sects) when it receives orders from Waliyat Al-Faqih in Iran. Furthermore, resistance does not mean that regime in Syria changes the demographic structures in Syrian when the president issued a decree to grant citizenship to two millions Iranians.
This regime has widely opened the door for Shiification of Syria. What resistance the Syrian regime is talking about when it transferred some quarter of a million Alawites into Lebanon? These groups came from Turkey into Syria but were given Lebanese citizenship and became at the disposal of Hezbollah. It is not possible to respect resistance while you simultaneously turn a blind eye to people's basic rights.
Needless to say, corruption is prevalent in Syria. Additionally, Syria is a police state in which police troops and thugs have been targeting civilians on a daily basis. What kind of resistance they talk about when the security apparatuses — that worked in Lebanon previously — establish fake companies in many countries? These companies are active in money laundering and drug trafficking to serve the interests of these security apparatuses.
Unsurprisingly, Arabs do not wish to see international intervention in Syria. Nonetheless, the Syrian president was frank when he said that were it not for Syria, the United States could not have managed to interfere in Iraq. He also admitted that the United States would have finished the Iraqi regime without the Syrian help. Now it seems that it is Syria's turn. The irony is that Syria and Iran — who helped the Americans in Iraq — are facing the same challenge that Iraq had. Nevertheless, Arabs are true to their cause; they do not wish to see the same Iraqi fragmentation taking place in Syria. The problem is that leaders in Syria have failed miserably and dissipated the wealth of the country. The ruling elite has marginalized and excluded all and has placed the issue of human rights at the bottom of their priorities.
A wise leader is one who learns lessons from the experience of others. Just a while ago, Saddam Hussein was dethroned, Ben Ali was kicked out of Tunisia, and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is behind bars. It seems that the learning curve for Assad is modest. Implicit in his statement to New York Times — in which he insisted that Syria was different from Egypt — is an inability to conclude a single lesson. All leaders who fail to seize the moment of truth and those who put their interest above everything else are now history.
